Beyond the life - Al di là della vita
by carlos olivera
Summary: Sometimes, one must face death in order to know life's real value. He escaped death for a miracle, and now he needed a reason to live. She was that reason. "You're not like the others. Leave the first line to someone else. You'll learn to creep near the target, break his neck and disappear even before someone will be able to note you. You're not a soldier. You're an assassin"


_**Notes**_

_**Hi to everyone!^_^**_

_**As I wrote in my previous stories, don't be too surprised if you' find some grammar errors, since I'm italian. And just because I'm italian, i've decided to follow a friend's suggestion and write a FF about this fantastic series.**_

_**I'll add some dialectal phrases and historical events inside this story, but i'll put all necessary notes.**_

_**To conclude, I'll make some sort of crossover for this story; the names you'll see written in bold for the first time are characters coming from 2 italian tv series, **__**RIS Roma**__** (the italian version of CSI) and **__**Intelligence - Servizi &amp; Segreti**__** (an action/adrenaline tv series dedicated to the italian Secret Service)**_

_**Well, it's all for now**_

_**See you soon!^_^**_

_**CJ Spencer**_

...

PROLOGUE

_Jan. 21_

_Rome_

_Celio Military Hospital_

The distinct, and in some ways disturbing young man in black uniform closed the room's door behind him, elegantly taking off his glasses and staring almost scolding the patient sitting on the bed in front of him.

His eyes were lifeless.

He stood motionless, his legs under the covers and his back pushed against the metal backrest, the blank expression of an empty body, and the face turned toward the window. The Parco del Celio covered in snow undoubtedly offered a pretty sight, but that young man with brown, almost black hair and unusual blue eyes was not looking at the whitewashed trees, or the ancient walls covered with ice.

In truth, he was not looking at anything.

"Lieutenant Gabriele Radoni?" He asked.

The patient didn't respond, neither turned to look at him, as if he hadn't heard.

"I'm Agent Jean. I work for the Social Welfare Agency. I'm here to make you an offer that I think you'll find interesting."

Finally, Lieutenant Radoni turned eyes in his direction, but Jean was not surprised at seeing them so empty, like two spheres of colored glass.

Putting a hand in his inside pocket, he took out his smatphone.

"Your service state is simply admirable" he said scrolling the data. "You graduated at the Military Academy of Venice. Enlisted in the Lagunari*. Like your father, after all. Two missions in Afghanistan, one in Lebanon, one in Iraq.

Your family has served its country since the eighteenth century, fighting before for Venice and then for the Kingdom of Italy.

A tradition that, apparently, is bound to end up with you. "

Jean looked up, staring Lieutenant almost reproachfully.

"You have no brothers. Neither a wife. Nor children. And you have applied for leave. I can understand that what you have passed has been an ordeal, but I would never expected that someone like you could be put into submission by something like this, no matter how traumatic and catastrophic. "

"I said it," he murmured then Gabriele. "I said it was dangerous to trust him.

And now, all those people ... my friends ... "

"In these cases often it's the fate to decide who lives and who dies. It was not the first time and will not the last. Think of the Maestrale**, in Nasiriyah.

But fate has decided to be doubly kind to you. "

"How can be called kind a fate that has made me survive and killed all the others?"

"Because he gave you the opportunity to move forward. The same that I am offering you right now.

Your skills and experience are a gold mine, and the agency knows this. That's why I'm here. "

"What could ever want a community health organization from a Lagunare next to leave?" He scornfully asked. "Anyway, I do not care.

I'm just waiting for the administration veterans' delegate to sign the papers for leave. "

"He will not come. Not right away, at least. I called the office, and I got to postpone his visit after our interview. "

"Thanks for nothing, but this will not change anything."

"Before making a decision, I'd like to show you something.

You can walk, right? "

The guy was really an irritating one, and finally Gabriel had no choice but to listen to him, so leaning on his cane he followed him out of the room.

Yet, he didn't do this just to get him out of the way as soon as possible; something inside him told him he had to go, as a presentiment, the same one that months ago allowed him, one among many, to survive.

Left the pavilion, Jean led Gabriel to the Department of Pediatrics' military wing, where many children arrived from war zones around the world thanks to the Red Cross were hospitalized.

Those poor people's horrible conditions, with many children so far mutilated and maimed to neither seem human beings anymore, would be sick to anyone, but Gabriele had seen too much things in his career to be impressed.

In a way he was not surprised that Jean had brought him right there: surely, he thought, he intended to make him the moral about his work, and the lives that could be saved with their contribution, but on the other hand her was more determined than ever to reaffirm once again its negative response.

Too much had happened, too many horrors he had seen.

Crossed from one end to the other the department's hallway, they entered into the high security area, where patients in particularly serious conditions or subjected to highly contagious diseases were hospitalized; then, after a few more meters, Jean stopped in front of a magic mirror, which in that moment was obscured.

"Before you see, knows this. What you will see and hear from now on will never be disclosed, neither you'll be allowed to talk about this to anyone. "

"What means all this secrecy? Don't you are not only an health care's organization? "

Jean enigmatically smiled, then, with a sharp gesture, he removed the obscuring, revealing behind the mirror an operating room where a delicate operation had probably just finished.

Gabriel took a moment to accept what was appeared before him; then, his eyes widened, his features froze, and his hands trembled so much that the stick fell, echoing along the empty corridor.

He couldn't believe it; it wasn't possible.

"I told you it would be worth it."

But Gabriel was not hearing to him anymore.

At that sight, immediately his mind had been almost separated from his body, flying away, where he never wanted to, and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

*** The ****_Lagunari_**** (from the Italian "laguna" = lagoon) are amphibious troops of the Italian Army. Today's Reggimento Lagunari Serenissima amphibious assault regiment has its headquarters in Mestre, a borough of Venice. The lagunari tend to be a very mobile attack force, high-powered weaponry, and tactical skills. They are trained to attack from the water and to establish a beachhead, which is an area of control on foreign territory. They are the Italian Army Marines.**

**** The ****_2003 Nasiriyah bombing_**** was a suicide attack on the Italian military police headquarters in Nasiriyah, Iraq, south of Baghdad on November 12, 2003. In that occasion, a tanker truck rigged with explosives detonated next to the building, tearing off its facade. The huge explosion also hit nearby houses. At least 28 people were killed, including 13 Italian carabinieri, 4 Italian Army soldiers, two Italian and nine Iraqi civilians. More than 100 people were injured, including 19 Italian soldiers.**


End file.
